Benzinga | Dec 17, 2021 07:20AM EST

Alibaba Eyes $100B From Budding South-East Asian Commerce

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) showcased ambitious objectives for its Southeast Asian arm Lazada, Bloomberg reports. China's e-commerce leader looks to drive an overseas expansion to offset Chinese economic and regulatory headwinds.

* Alibaba sees a long-term goal of quintupling gross merchandise value, the sum of transactions across Lazada's platforms, to $100 billion.

* Related Content: Read Why China's Regulators Summoned Alibaba, Baidu

* Alibaba wants Lazada to serve over 300 million users. Lazada is now the third-largest online retailer in emerging markets by GMV, behind MercadoLibre Inc (NASDAQ: MELI) but ahead of South Korea's Coupang Inc (NYSE: CPNG) and India's Flipkart.

* Alibaba says that Southeast Asian online commerce is growing about 27% annually on average.

* Southeast Asia's internet economy is set to double to $363 billion by 2025.

* Price Action: BABA shares traded lower by 1.45% at $118.51 in the premarket session on the last check Friday.